There was much misogyny surrounding Gillard. Entirely of her making, and her communication chief's style. Obama understands the gravity of the passing of Mandela. His selfie reflects that. Greens assault good manners. ABC asks BBC to whitewash her. Fewer fires means the world is cooling .. and it is! Greenpeace threatens Christmas.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns to those born on this day, across the years
- 1465 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shogun (d. 1489)
- 1680 – Emanuele d'Astorga, Italian composer (d. 1736)
- 1803 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (d. 1869)
- 1912 – Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer (d. 2007)
- 1918 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian soldier and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
- 1926 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)
- 1938 – Reg Livermore, Australian actor and singer
- 1950 – Christina Onassis, American businesswoman (d. 1988)
- 1954 – Jermaine Jackson, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (Jackson 5)
- 1996 – Hailee Steinfeld, American actress
Matches
Continue reading 'A darker shade of green'
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Hand made " Halo Rings " are gaining popularity.
Approximate price ( without centre-stone diamond approximately 0.80 carat to 1.40 carat ) is AUD$4,000.00 GST inclusive plus or minus AUD$1,000.00 pending finger size in 18 karat palladium white gold.
You can select your centre-stone from our website here :www.diamondimports.com.au
This particular ring only was AUD$6,000.00 because it took a larger diamond weighing 2.51 carats.
There are the nasty alternative cheap Asian imports available in chain stores however they are inferior to the quality we produce.
Most retail jewellers would not have a clue and when it comes to diamond expertise.They usually hide behind diamond certificates or grading reports to giving a a false sense of credibility.
Ask them to translate in a simple language that you can understand the data on a report, explain optical symmetry, light return and transparency while viewing several diamonds next to each other to make an intelligent comparison it is insulting your intelligence. Instead you will be told ad nauseum about the 4C's which does not assist you in how to assess pricing factors other than what any mug can read verbatim from a grading report anyway.
Always check credentials and never buy a diamond from an internet diamond vendor who does not have the actual diamond they are advertising in stock verified by a report number and identifiable by it's unique cold laser inscription.
Unfortunately going to some brick and mortar jewellers to buy your diamonds now is like going to a brain surgeon to fix a broken foot. Most show no duty of care other than trying to close the sale on a consigned diamond that they most likely do not own while creaming off a profit with no capital outlay. They are parasites who are desperate to cover their rent and staff wages.
Taking advantage of the client's gullibility while they are making an emotional decision many jewellers are no better than predators.
Only buy diamonds you can see from a qualified diamond grader who specialises in stocking their own diamonds.
Anybody else is a mere charlatan.
I am not winning any friends in the diamond jewellery business but this is not a popularity contest.
I am fed up with the crap and bullshit diamond buyers are told by morons who are completely unqualified.
Never pay up front for a diamond overseas and take into account any added taxes and shipping costs that are not included on the advertised price of a virtual diamond.
Remember even bad diamonds still sparkle and look pretty.
Caveat Emptor = Buyer Beware.
This is a ring made from dinosaur bone, meteorite, and gold
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A pair of heavenly Halo Design Diamond Engagement Rings that we handmade for two extremely lucky ladies who are now happily engaged and wearing their beautiful custom designed engagement rings we created for them— at Diamond Imports.
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Looking out towards Brentwood, CA
John has a ranch with some spectacular views. My friend Mike and I got to spend an evening with this elegant individual as he toured us around the old abandoned mines and let us hike up several of the many hills on his property. This shot facing west was from right after a remarkable sunset with lenticular clouds in the sky to the north. Thanks John for a wonderful evening. Keep those dancing shoes dancing now, y'hear?
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Direct link to the book ishttp://creature.themonitor.com/
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Soon it will be 10 am on 11/12/13
In the US, it was last month ..===
Larry Pickering
ROB BORBIDGE FOR QLD GOVERNOR... don’t think so, Rob
There is no doubt Campbell Newman’s new bikie laws will be given short shrift by the High Court. Only a fool without a senate would think to legislate that we be unequal under the law. (Ample laws already exist to deal with the bikie scourge.) And only a fool would consider appointing Rob Borbidge as Qld Governor, but Premier Newman is planning to do both.
Life without a senate has invited corruption and unmoderated excesses from Bjelke-Petersen to Goss, Hinze, Cooper, Ahern, Mackenroth, Ludwig, Bryce, Rudd, Beattie, Bligh and now the relative cleanskin, Campbell Newman, is dipping his toe in the still-warm excrement.
And where does Qld’s 35th premier, Rob “Bubbles” Borbidge, fit into this gallery of rogues? Well, he and his mates had an after-hours predilection for under-age boys, and his mates were none other than Chief Justice Paul “Daphnis” de Jersey and Federal Court Judge, John “Doggy” Dowsett.
A group named BLAZE, an acronym for “Boy Lovers and Zucchini Eaters”, received much scrutiny from the NSW Wood Royal Commission and the NCA. The Commission’s report is available on the net.
A former Speaker claims to have had in his possession a copy of a video, provided by the Parliamentary Service Staff, showing Borbidge entering the Annex building with one of his “friends” and in the company of two young “boys” dressed in high heeled shoes and blonde wigs.
It is believed that a copy of the video, which was in the possession of the Speaker, is now in a secure location.
Borbidge also wrote some very compromising “love letters” to some boys on official Opposition letterheads. The former Speaker declared, “There are three in existence. I have recovered two, but there’s still one getting around out there.” The two letters are also now in a safe location.
In December of 1984, police raided two male brothels, Brett’s Boys at Kelvin Grove and House of Praetorian at Coorparoo.
Copies of credit card receipts were kept in Police Commissioner Terry Lewis’ safe. These documents were seized by Fitzgerald Inquiry investigators. The source for this information was a solicitor representing one of the corrupt cops who was brought before the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
According to this source, Lewis’ safe contained credit card receipts for "Brett’s Boys" brothel. The receipts detailed the services as “laundry” and the credit cards were specifically described as AMEX and were noted as official “parliamentary expenses”.
In the Kimmins Report it was claimed that boys were supplied to "Brett’s Boys" from a Philippine source. But there was another source of young boys who were bound for the paedophile networks.
At the recent Carmody Commission of Inquiry a witness by the name of Fred Feige made mention that a senior officer in the Department of Family Services, Mr Donald A. C. Smith, was apportioning out young boys to the offenders on weekends.
At the upcoming Federal Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse, one witness is expected to expand on this information.
He will claim that he was abused by one particular paedophile who was part of a group. This group was involved in an early 1980’s court case which is known as the “Case of the Three White Volvos”.
Each member of this group drove a white Volvo. The particular paedophile in question was ABC radio announcer Blair Edmonds.
Another member of this group was Justice Underhill (known as “Justice Underpants”) who died earlier this year. It is interesting to note who gave the eulogy at Underhill’s funeral. It was Justice Kirby who also gave the eulogy at former Governor General, Sir Zelman Cowan’s, funeral. Cowan was also a paedophile, according to Police Intelligence records.
ALP sycophant, Philip Adams, gave the eulogies at the funerals of Big Bob Collins who suicided rather than face charges and serial “rough-house” offender, Don Dunstan, who had internally injured a young boy to the extent that the poor kid was airlifted back to a Filipino hospital rather than risk admission to a hospital here.
Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, in January, 1997 received a delegation from two investigators into paedophile claims and, during a four hour meeting, the investigators disclosed in detail the sordid backgrounds of D’Arcy, Borbidge and Ahern. Bjelke, according to reports seemed unmoved.
Family Services official, Donald A. C. Smith (he is known as “The Gatekeeper”) had the final say on which children received weekend passes from orphanages and youth detention centres.
The current Commissions into paedophilia will continue to throw light on the networks within Parliaments, the Judiciary, churches, high-profile corporations and well-known television celebrities.
We are about to discover the awful extent to which innocent children have been at risk.
Other huge names are yet to come but I will leave that to evidence yet to be given and to the Commissioners’ findings.
Sleep well boys... and wake up to yourself Campbell Newman.
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RELIEF FOR GILLARD ACCUSERS
I could hear, smell and touch the relief in Bob Kernohan’s voice over the phone as he left the Magistrates Court in Melbourne yesterday. I wanted to give him a cuddle as he drew a little closer to the end of an agonising personal nightmare.
He had called me to say Senior Magistrate Lauristen had rejected Slater & Gordon and Bruce Wilson’s claimed privilege on what could be critical evidence in the AWU scam.
Decent union men have paid a high price to avenge those who stole from their members’ pay packets and systematically rorted and laundered taxpayer and construction company funds.
[Ill-informed bloggers had circulated on the net last week that Magistrate Lauristen may not allow the application by Vicpol and that he could be an ALP “plant”. There was no reason to believe Lauristen would not hear and judge the application on its merits. He did exactly that. Internet conspiracy theorists should understand the likelihood of injudicious rulings ending with an embarrassing peer review and possible invalidation in an appellant court.]
Journalists, Michael Smith, Glenn Milne and others have paid a high price in attempting to uncover the truth. Ralph Blewitt also suffered brutal defamation from an acid-tongued Gillard as she tried to discredit the evidence of her former associate.
Without Blewitt, Vicpol would have no case. As with all whistleblowers, he had everything to lose and nothing to gain except peace of mind.
Bruce Wilson was a high-life union crook and all union crooks, from Mafia mob boss John Gotti down, had a solicitor as a partner in their criminal activity.
Julia Gillard was Wilson’s willing solicitor, partner and moll... there is no doubt about that. Her explanation that she was “young and naive” is beyond all belief.
Twelve dedicated detectives from Victoria’s Major Fraud Squad have spent 12 months unearthing a mountain of evidence against Bruce Wilson.
Under each rock they turned over they also found a naive Julia Gillard, who they now ominously refer to as “others”.
The detectives must have winced when faced with the Boulder, WA, incident; in my opinion the worst of many Gillard/Wilson capers:
WA newspaper archives show Bruce Wilson travelled to Boulder/Kalgoorlie in 1992 to attempt to allay AWU members' concerns about his wish to transfer the management of large sums of union members’ money to a new AWU account in Northbridge, Perth.
The money resided at the time in a separate account called, "The Goldfields Fatal Accident and Death Fund". This money, donated from union members themselves, was intended to financially assist bereaved families of deceased union members.
Wilson was determined to have management of the account shifted to the AWU's head office in Perth. Wilson was the then WA boss of the AWU. He and Ralph Blewitt were to be sole signatories on the account and union members were justifiably apprehensive.
They were wary of Wilson's alleged fraudulent activities and demanded a meeting. It was set down for 8pm in the Boulder Town Hall.
Wilson knew he would never convince members of the legitimacy of the proposed move himself. So he introduced to the stage a person of high legal authority to assure union members there was no need for concern.
The person he introduced was Julia Gillard.
Members were unaware Gillard was his lover and personal solicitor. She was presented as an important Industrial Lawyer from Victoria and an official representative of the Labor stalwart law firm, Slater & Gordon. Slater & Gordon were also unaware of anyone representing them.
Gillard addressed union members at length explaining why the money should be moved and that there was nothing to worry about. She insisted the members were in the good hands of the ALP’s Slater & Gordon and their best interests would at all times be protected.
Gillard must have done an excellent job because the account containing approximately $1 million was shifted to a private Northbridge, Perth account. The address for all correspondence was nominated as Northbridge Post Office, Box 253.
Three years later, police were asked by incoming AWU State Secretary, Tim Daly, to investigate large amounts that had been withdrawn from "The Goldfields Fatal Accident and Death Fund" part of which was used to buy two holiday units in Kalbarri.
Despite the WA Major Fraud Squad's Detective David McAlpine’s keenness to lay charges, it didn't happen. The Kalbarri holiday units, were subsequently sold.
Again the laundered money vanished.
It was only the tip of a very large iceberg that is only now beginning to thaw.
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PAEDOPHILIA IS A SILENT SINISTER PANDEMIC
Not many things can surprise me. I’ve been around a long while and have done just about everything so, after broaching the subject of paedophilia and having had a thousand wicked stories of child abuse hit my desk, I sat here gobsmacked thinking all this just can’t be true!
So I rang everyone I knew, and some I didn’t know, who worked in the field of broken lives. “Surely this can’t be true?” I asked.
“Can I talk off the record?”, was one response. “You don’t know the half of it”, was another. “Just don’t go there, Larry.” I was actually being told by people who should know that it was indeed true.
So, in disbelief, I put up a poll on Pickering Post asking: “Have you ever been indecently interfered with as a child? YES or NO.” I thought maybe 3 or 4 percent would say yes.
For 24 hours the YES answer has been hovering around a staggering 30 per cent. There is no reason for thousands of people to lie about something that would have adversely affected their lives.
There is something seriously wrong here but the polling seems to confirm what is on my desk and in my inbox.
No sooner do I think, “Well, that information MUST be a load of bullshit”, a mountain of corroborating evidence from credible sources follows it! My nose for bullshit is obviously faulty.
I don’t let my three youngsters near churches or scout halls or that dodgy bloke up the street, so I have done my job. Crumbs, have I? I clearly haven’t!
This canker permeates every level of society, it knows no demographic. The judiciary, parliaments, the aristocracy, the entertainment industry is riddled with it, there is no corner where a child is safe from these extremely clever predators.
What is it in the (mostly male) genetic makeup that craves sexual dominance over an innocent child? Time for some lateral thinking:
Historically, parts of Europe, all of the Middle East and much of the Asian sub continent openly practised this bastardry. It is commonplace among Aboriginal and probably most African tribes.
South American cultures included their children in sacrificial ceremonies.
Sophisticated networks and cells of paedophiles operate freely within the West. There are influential groups here in Australia advocating under-age sex be legalised.
These people are not from disadvantaged or oddball groups... they are names, big names, household names! They are intelligent people and smart enough to avoid prosecution.
They dabble in the occult and use LSD to ensure a child can never be a credible witness.
Royal Commissions may well pinpoint myriad instances of child abuse, but try prosecuting the perpetrators. It’s not that easy when the child has been mentally manipulated and thirty years later the criminal is dead.
How many little lives are being ruined tonight?
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James Calore
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Winter wonderland... Again
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Deric Ly
Maybe this as a pork roll challenge? Any takers?
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Michelle Malkin
Funeral selfies? Obama’s selfie face, FLOTUS’ furious face at #MandelaMemorial [pics] ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/
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Tony Abbott, John Key and Steven Harper catching up for tea before Nelson Mandela's memorial service.
Such a poignant photo.
Three brilliant conservative leaders, three good men
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https://www.facebook.com/events/453152764789984/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
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4 her
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“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”Deuteronomy 18:15 NIV
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- 220 – Cao Pi forces Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate the Han Dynasty throne. The Cao Wei empire is established. The Three Kingdoms period begins.
- 361 – Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.
- 630 – Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.
- 969 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is assassinated by his wife Theophano and her lover, the later Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
- 1282 – Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, southWales.
- 1688 – James II of England abdicated the throne by throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames.
- 1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas Primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.
- 1927 – Guangzhou Uprising: Communist militia and worker Red Guards launch an uprising in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.
- 1931 – The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster 1931, establishing legislative equality between the United Kingdom and the self-governing dominions of the British Commonwealth: Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Irish Free State.
- 1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time.
- 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India, becomes effective.
- 1941 – World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them.
- 1948 – The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, which established and defined the role of the United Nations Conciliation Commission as an organization to facilitate peace in the British Mandate for Palestine.
- 1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New York.
- 1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
- 2006 – Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state ofMichoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War.
Despatches
- 384 – Pope Damasus I (b. 305)
- 1241 – Ögedei Khan, Mongolian Great Khan (b. 1186)
- 1282 – Llywelyn the Last, Welsh prince (b. 1223)
- 1964 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (The Highway Q.C.'s and The Soul Stirrers) (b. 1931)
- 1971 – Maurice McDonald, American businessman, co-founded McDonald's (b. 1902)
- 2008 – Bettie Page, American model (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Ravi Shankar, Indian-American sitar player and composer (b. 1920)
A darker shade of green
Miranda Devine – Wednesday, December 11, 2013 (10:06am)
THE rape of a Belgian tourist in a dark alley in Potts Point last month is a warning that environmentally sensitive street lighting will take a terrible human toll.
The 25-year-old was walking down a dimly lit Victoria Street from her serviced apartment to buy food at 8.30pm when a man forced her into the alley between two terrace houses.
It was so dark that the traumatized woman could not give police a description of her assailant, or even tell them the color of his clothes.
The alley where she was attacked is at the northern end of Victoria street in a residential enclave just a block from the bright lights and fleshpots of Darlinghurst Road.
And yet the lighting was like something out of the backblocks of St Ives: completely inadequate as a deterrent to crime.
Continue reading 'A darker shade of green'McTERNAN REVEALED
Tim Blair – Wednesday, December 11, 2013 (12:41pm)
This is hilarious:
Thousands of emails from Julia Gillard’s powerful media adviser John McTernan have been leaked to the ABC …The emails show he frequently used vulgar language in professional communications with junior staff, with Mr McTernan employing obscene language to describe journalists, critics and even US president Barack Obama’s digital strategist, Harper Reed, over his prediction that Labor would lose the 2013 election.When Ms Gillard’s chief of staff declared a “war on crap’” and ordered staff to tidy their workstations to make the office one befitting a prime minister, a colleague jokingly referred to “McTernan’s office” as one needing attention.Mr McTernan replied: “C***, you will be c**ted too” in a reply-all email to the office.
That’s misogyny talk, that is. Labor luvvies who shrieked with horror over alleged sexism towards Gillard will be appalled.
The emails show he encouraged Labor staffers to mobilise so called “Twitter armies”’ to ridicule the Tony Abbott-led opposition and attack individual Coalition MPs online, which he would later point out to journalists as proof of public opinion.
And didn’t that work out well.
PARTY TIME
Tim Blair – Wednesday, December 11, 2013 (10:59am)
Barack Obama, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt and UK Prime Minister David Cameron demonstratesolemn dignity at Nelson Mandela’s memorial:
The UK Telegraph‘s Iain Martin:
The UK Telegraph‘s Iain Martin:
What on earth is going on? Why do world leaders now behave like this? And at a memorial service? I saw that selfie picture and my response was simple and from the gut: what the hell do you think you’re doing man? Whatever it is stop it.
GLOBAL COLDING
Tim Blair – Wednesday, December 11, 2013 (10:55am)
That carbon tax is really kicking in:
A new look at NASA satellite data says the earth has set a new record for lowest temperature recorded.Scientists made the discovery while analysing 32 years of global surface temperatures recorded by satellites.
ABC asks BBC if its bum looks biased
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (1:18pm)
Good:
===ABC chairman Jim Spigelman has sought to defend the national broadcaster against attacks from “conservative” critics, announcing a number of external audits to assess any bias in its reporting.Bad:
Mr Spigelman said he took complaints about bias seriously and was addressing complaints of an “alleged systematic lack of impartiality by certain [ABC] programs and content makers”.
He said BBC journalist Andrea Wills was preparing a report to “assess the impartiality” of all ABC Radio interviews with then prime minister Kevin Rudd and then opposition leader Tony Abbott during the recent election campaign.That is a joke.
Sorry, sweetheart. This cash isn’t just for the union
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (10:39am)
Another dodgy Labor deal unpicked:
===THE minister in charge of the childcare sector has labelled Labor’s $300 million wages increase a “slush fund” aimed at boosting wages for union members and has called on some providers to pay back $62.5m earmarked for low-paid workers.Reader Peter adds:
Despite claims from Assistant Minister for Education Sussan Ley that the Coalition was honouring all pay-rise contracts, The Australian understands the federal government is committed only to funding the first instalment—$60m—of the $132m contract to the nation’s biggest childcare provider, Goodstart Early Learning…
(A) PricewaterhouseCoopers report...found the pay rises Labor wanted were only for about 14 per cent of the entire sector and only for workers who signed on to an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and became members of the United Voice union.
Marius Benson called it straight on The Drum last night (31:58):
“I reckon there are few more deserving people than childcare workers, but this looks like a sweetheart deal between a Labor government and a Labor union.”
Three of the ABC’s “difficulties” drown
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (10:20am)
Congratulations to Edward Snowden, the Guardian and the ABC:
===People smugglers are telling asylum seekers that bad diplomatic relations between Australia and Indonesia mean the route by boat to Christmas Island is once again open for business.He’s right:
New evidence obtained by Fairfax Media shows asylum seekers are being told not to fear arrest by Indonesian police because co-operation has been suspended in light of the phone-tapping affair.
“Nowadays it is a safe time to go to Australia because my country and Australia have a bad diplomatic relationship,” one smuggler’s agent in the West Java town of Cisarua told a potential client.
[A] spokesman for Djoko Suyanto, Co-ordinating Minister for Politics Security and Law, confirmed yesterday no action was being taken to prevent boats leaving…Result?:
“This is our stance while waiting for the new arrangements (with Australia)—it depends on the new roadmap."… Policing co-operation with Australia against people smuggling was suspended last month, in the wake of the Defence Signals Directorate controversy.
THREE asylum seekers including a toddler died when their Australia-bound boat sank in rough seas off Indonesia’s Java island...Add three drowned people to the “difficulty” the ABC admits it caused:
ABC managing director Mark Scott said the broadcaster’s publishing details of Australian spying on Indonesian leaders “caused some short-term difficulty but we felt it was in the public interest.”(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and Rudi.)
Why do Greens feel licensed to be vicious?
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (10:12am)
Jim Casey, secretary of the NSW Fire Brigade Employees’ Union, is a Greens member with what seems to me a nasty streak that’s regrettably common in the far Left.
Take some of his recent tweets in which he wishes Tony Abbott was pushed into a burning building and disparages his service (and that of all 70,000 RFS members) as a volunteer fire fighter:
(Thanks to reader TruthBeTold.)
===Take some of his recent tweets in which he wishes Tony Abbott was pushed into a burning building and disparages his service (and that of all 70,000 RFS members) as a volunteer fire fighter:
Once again I marvel how people who noisily pride themselves on having superior compassion feel licensed to act as savages.
(Thanks to reader TruthBeTold.)
Fewer fires. But check the headlines of Flannery’s Climate Council
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (9:50am)
Tim Flannery, the professional alarmist, is at it again. The headlines from the Climate Council Bushfire Report:
(Thanks to reader Howard Juno.)
===Climate change is already increasing the risk of bushfires. Extreme fire weather has increased over the last 30 years in southeast Australia.But here’s what the report actually finds:
The high level of background variability in fire frequency and extent in Australia means that detecting significant trends in fire activity Australia-wide may not occur for at least many decades, regardless of the significant trends in fire danger weather (Clarke et al., 2011). Furthermore, few datasets on fire activity spanning multiple decades are available in Australia (Cary et al., 2012), so our ability to measure long-term trends is limited. Analysis of the Global Fire Emissions Database over the period 1995-2011 showed that the amount of area burned in Australia decreased from 2001 to 2010 by about 5.5 million ha per year, but in 2011 there was a major upsurge in burning that exceeded the annual area burned in at least the previous 14 years. This was interpreted as being mainly a response to a previous La Niña event in the arid centre and north (Giglio et al., 2013).And this:
Recent analysis of the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED) shows that in the period 1997 to 2011, the area burned globally decreased (Giglio et al., 2013)Isn’t the real headline: Less land burned by fire in 14 years of “warming”?
(Thanks to reader Howard Juno.)
Warning given
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (9:48am)
Reader Sam:
===The left-wing panda is rapid Andrew.
Why the West wants to make flawed Mandela a saint
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (9:17am)
South African academic and author RW Johnson on this dangerous yearning to see in Nelson Mandela a saint:
(Thanks to reader Tom.)
===The beginning of wisdom is to realize that there has, for a long time now, been an enormous Western longing to find and celebrate a Third World leader and saint. Lenin, Stalin and Mao enjoyed such acclaim at various stages, but so did Nkrumah, Ho Chi Minh, Amilcar Cabral, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Hugo Chavez ,and various others. In every case, they were found to have feet of clay or worse. In the modern era, two men have enjoyed uncritical acclaim: Gandhi and Mandela. Yet Gandhi was a failed lawyer who had to leave India for South Africa to make a living. He denounced railways, doctors, modern medicine, hospitals and most other elements of modern life. He also regarded South African blacks as mere savages and defended the Indian caste system. Similarly, Nelson Mandela had his full share of failings.I’ve written about Mandela’s embrace of terrorism and - even as president - his lauding of autocrats and men of violence. Johnston notes also Mandela’s troubling record in office:
But in the case of Gandhi and Mandela, none of that seems to matter. This canonization seems to depend on a bottomless well of guilt about slavery, colonialism, and the mistreatment of people of color down the years, allied to a pursuit of the “noble savage” and a longing to discover that somewhere, somehow, the Third World has discovered a new model, a new way which will transcend our fault-riven capitalism and our dead-end communism. It is as if by devoting oneself to one of these superheroes, one can receive absolution from that crushing burden of guilt.
What no one can take away is that Mandela showed extraordinary courage and fortitude through twenty-eight years in jail, and he adopted a generous attitude of forgiving his enemies when he emerged from jail....Beware the sanctification of Mandela. The good he did will be used to license evil.
Otherwise, people exhibit an extraordinary amnesia. His presidential term started with the Shell House shootings, when ANC militants on the roof of the ANC’s headquarters used AK-47s to gun down Inkatha marchers in the streets of Johannesburg. Mandela simply refused to hand over either the murderers or their weapons, and attempted to justify this wholesale murder. Then, early in his term, the government laid off all the country’s most experienced teachers, a blow from which the school system has never recovered. Mandela’s administration also saw the passage of perhaps the most extreme labour laws in the world and radical affirmative action laws which saw the ruination of the civil service by the mass replacement of skilled whites and Asians by mainly unskilled Africans. The civil service has also never recovered.
His administration also presided over a scandalous and extremely corrupt arms deal. We do not know whether Mandela profited personally from this; the presumption is that he didn’t. Near the end of his administration he gave probably the most extreme speech given by any South African president when he suggested that there was a vast conspiracy of opposition parties, NGOs and criminal gangs, all trying to overthrow the government. The object of the speech, quite transparently, was to lay out the rationale for highly repressive measures.
On top of that Mandela was quietly told that his mentions of HIV/AIDS were unpopular with black audiences so he shut up completely about the subject thereafter. Thus, it was under his administration that the disease grew to epidemic proportions in the country…
Similarly, when the press criticised the ANC government he attacked it for being “white-controlled”, even though most editors were already black. So, despite his reputation for reconciliation, he was not slow to play the race card when it suited him.
(Thanks to reader Tom.)
Greenpeace tells children lies to ruin Christmas
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (8:58am)
Greenpeace isn’t content with lying about global warming. It now wants to destroy Christmas for children:
What makes the Left such killjoys? The totalitarian streak?
Children, the North Pole is fine:
===Greenpeace is warning children the world over Santa Claus might not be bringing gifts to them because of global warming.Carter also reveals himself as the hammiest of actors.
A “Save the Arctic” video released by the environmental group shows a sullen and dirty Santa – played by Jim Carter of “Downton Abbey” — in a dark, concrete room with water dripping from the ceiling.
“Dear children, I regrettably bring bad tidings. For some time now, melting ice here in the North Pole has made our operations and our day-to-day life intolerable and impossible and there may be no alternative but to cancel Christmas,” Santa warned in the Greenpeace video.
What makes the Left such killjoys? The totalitarian streak?
Children, the North Pole is fine:
Photographing their tears for Mandela
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (8:48am)
No class at all, but, then again, the whole point of Mandela’s funeral service was to be seen there:
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Yes, there is a budget emergency
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (8:35am)
The Abbott Government
should have spent the past couple of months warning of the Budget
emergency. Every day should bring more revelations like this:
===GOVERNMENT spending rose almost 50 per cent faster than growth in the economy under the Labor government, even after excluding its stimulus spending, a study by the Parliamentary Budget Office has found.
Mandela’s funeral service: a celebration for dictators
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (7:15am)
Nelson Mandela’s memorial service yesterday was a disgrace - a showcase of tyrants to honor a man who preached freedom.
I’ve already written that Mandela’s noble record as a reconciler is being used by the Left to sanctify his darker deeds - his use of terrorism and his embrace as president of corrupt dictators and men of violence, including Libya’s Gaddafi, Cuba’s Castro, the PLO’s Arafat, Nigeria’s Abacha and Indonesia’s Suharto.
Yesterday’s memorial service went even further - explicitly honoring dictators and former terrorists.
Here is the list of national leaders invited to speak:
The sole speaker from Africa other than Zuma was the socialist president of Namibia, who was one of the few heads of state to congratulate brutal Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe for winning the rigged elections in July, even attending Mugabe’s inauguration.
This white-washing of tyrants and revolutionaries worked brilliantly, thanks in part to Barack Obama letting himself be used as a dupe:
Really? Well, that didn’t work, did it?
There was, however, one cheering sign of good judgment at the funeral service - or there would be, if I didn’t suspect a racial element to it:
On the very day that Cuban co-dictator Raul Castro was guest speaker at the funeral service for freedom fighter Nelson Mandela:
===I’ve already written that Mandela’s noble record as a reconciler is being used by the Left to sanctify his darker deeds - his use of terrorism and his embrace as president of corrupt dictators and men of violence, including Libya’s Gaddafi, Cuba’s Castro, the PLO’s Arafat, Nigeria’s Abacha and Indonesia’s Suharto.
Yesterday’s memorial service went even further - explicitly honoring dictators and former terrorists.
Here is the list of national leaders invited to speak:
President Barack Obama (USA)Mandela is honored for leading black south Africans to freedom and for bringing reconciliation with white South Africans. But speaking at his funeral was the Marxist co-dictator of the Cuban regime, a vice-president of the unelected Chinese communist regime and the president of Brazil, who’d once served jail for being a member of a Marxist guerrilla group.
President Dilma Rousseff (Brazil)
Vice-President Li Yuanchao (China)
President Hikepunye Pohamba (Namibia)
President Pranab Mukherjee (India)
President Raúl Castro Ruz (Cuba)
President of the Republic of South Africa: His Excellency Jacob Zuma
The sole speaker from Africa other than Zuma was the socialist president of Namibia, who was one of the few heads of state to congratulate brutal Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe for winning the rigged elections in July, even attending Mugabe’s inauguration.
This white-washing of tyrants and revolutionaries worked brilliantly, thanks in part to Barack Obama letting himself be used as a dupe:
But something unexpected and extraordinary happened before Obama even reached the podium–he stopped to shake hands with Cuban President Raul Castro, leader of America’s long-isolated Cold War rival… Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who publicly clashed with Mandela and faced a barrage of sanctions from western governments, was also present, and he also shook hands with President Obama.
And the scattered but noisy crowd in the rain-lashed stadium signalled its sympathies were with the men of hate and oppression:
In contrast to reaction to Zuma’s name being mentioned, there were big cheers when Mugabe’s was read out.... China’s vice president Lee arrives, and he welcomes president Cuba’s president Raol Castro to massive applause.The stars, almost all from the Left, were there to sprinkle the pixie dust of celebrity onto this laundering of brutality:
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and singer Bono, as well as British billionaire Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel are also expected to be among the celebrity mourners… Charlize Theron talks to Bono.True, the crowd did boo one man there:
If you’re watching on TV and don’t understand the boos - the FNB crowd is booing every time South Africa’s President Zuma appears on the big screens up in the stadium.
Now why would they have booed Zuma, the heir to Mandela and the polygamous husband of four wives?
Zuma is facing a corruption investigation for allegedly using $20 million in state funds for the renovation of his residence in KwaZulu-Natal province, including the building of a swimming pool. The ANC is facing growing criticism for being ineffective, corrupt and out of touch with the hardships faced by South Africa’s poor.And who mentored Zuma, refusing to cut him loose even after he’d been sacked over other corruption allegations? Who placed party loyalty over the national good?
Jacob Zuma ... just been fired as deputy president of South Africa, his financial adviser had been convicted of fraud and corruption and now Zuma himself was facing charges. In a month from hell, he was also mired in debt.
Rescue came in the shape of Nelson Mandela, who bailed out Zuma with a cheque for 1m rand (then worth about £80,000). It was June 2005. Two years later Zuma came back from the political dead to beat Thabo Mbeki for the presidency of the governing African National Congress (ANC)…
“Nelson Mandela gave him the money to pay off all his debts as a personal favour,” said William Gumede, author of Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC. “It was in the hope that he would walk away from all those dubious benefactors. The idea was to say: ‘You know what, I’m seeing and hearing all this stuff and it doesn’t look good. There are no strings attached but I want you to clean up your act.’”
Really? Well, that didn’t work, did it?
There was, however, one cheering sign of good judgment at the funeral service - or there would be, if I didn’t suspect a racial element to it:
China’s Vice-President Li Yuanchao was booed.UPDATE
On the very day that Cuban co-dictator Raul Castro was guest speaker at the funeral service for freedom fighter Nelson Mandela:
Cuban government agents have detained about 20 dissidents arriving for an International Human Rights Day march, halting the demonstration before it started…
Cuban authorities consider the island’s small community of outspoken dissidents to be counterrevolutionaries and charge they accept foreign money to try to undermine the Communist system.
Spend enough on “job-creating” and you’ll go broke. Look at South Australia
Andrew Bolt December 11 2013 (6:52am)
Nick Cater on South Australia, the showcase of Holden-style subsidy economics:
Rather than cut business costs, South Australia’s Labor Government has relied on state “investment” in jobs - including Stones concerts. It’s preferred to spend rather than cut:
And after “creating” all these jobs and lavishing the private sector with more job-creating subsidies, the state should be flying. But the sums haven’t quite worked out:
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill demands more federal support for Holden:
===IF the Rolling Stones play in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne, it is known as a concert. If the Rolling Stones play in South Australia it is known as “a coup for Adelaide.”The state government is keen to spend on subsidies not just for Stones concerts but for manufacturers like Holden, so why are manufacturing jobs actually shrinking? Here’s one hint:
In other states, the promoter hires a venue, charges the baby boomers a small fortune and ensures the Stones turn up at the appointed time. In South Australia, the government builds the venue, the baby boomers still pay through the nose, but the premier has to bung the Stones a wad of cash to convince them to turn up at all.
Payroll tax is up by 47 per cent in real terms since 2002.Here’s another:
Cheap power used to be one of SA’s competitive advantages, yet power bills are three times larger than they were in 2002.(One reason for that, of course, is that no state has erected so many wind farms, producing so much expensive power.)
Rather than cut business costs, South Australia’s Labor Government has relied on state “investment” in jobs - including Stones concerts. It’s preferred to spend rather than cut:
State public servants now outnumber manufacturing workers. Labor’s employment record ... is a net loss of 23,000 manufacturing jobs and a net gain of 20,000 bureaucrats… When Labor came to power, the public service salary bill ate up 43 per cent of the government’s income. Now it accounts for 47 per cent, the largest figure of any state in Australia.
And after “creating” all these jobs and lavishing the private sector with more job-creating subsidies, the state should be flying. But the sums haven’t quite worked out:
The budget deficit last year was an uncomfortable $1.3 billion.UPDATE
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill demands more federal support for Holden:
Our car industry creates spillovers for the rest of our economy, which even the Productivity Commission says are significant, in fields such as robotics, defence, food and beverage manufacturing, clean tech and business services…Samuel J at Catallaxy Files issues a challenge:
The ball is now in Tony Abbott’s court. If he reverses his $500 million cut to industry support, and commits to continuing to support it, Holden will stay. If he refuses to do that, Holden will go. The choice could not be clearer.
If Weatherill thinks taxpayers should continue to throw good money after bad at Holden, he doesn’t need the Federal Government. The South Australia Government can equally hand out subsidies, and increase taxes on SA taxpayers.
It is Weatherill who thinks that the subsidies pay back many times over – let him test the waters by throwing money at all sorts of manufacturing industries. South Australia can become the experiment state – and SA taxpayers can reap the rewards of a manufacturing subsidy bonanza.
Hand made " Halo Rings " are gaining popularity.
Approximate price ( without centre-stone diamond approximately 0.80 carat to 1.40 carat ) is AUD$4,000.00 GST inclusive plus or minus AUD$1,000.00 pending finger size in 18 karat palladium white gold.
You can select your centre-stone from our website here :www.diamondimports.com.au
This particular ring only was AUD$6,000.00 because it took a larger diamond weighing 2.51 carats.
There are the nasty alternative cheap Asian imports available in chain stores however they are inferior to the quality we produce.
Most retail jewellers would not have a clue and when it comes to diamond expertise.They usually hide behind diamond certificates or grading reports to giving a a false sense of credibility.
Ask them to translate in a simple language that you can understand the data on a report, explain optical symmetry, light return and transparency while viewing several diamonds next to each other to make an intelligent comparison it is insulting your intelligence. Instead you will be told ad nauseum about the 4C's which does not assist you in how to assess pricing factors other than what any mug can read verbatim from a grading report anyway.
Always check credentials and never buy a diamond from an internet diamond vendor who does not have the actual diamond they are advertising in stock verified by a report number and identifiable by it's unique cold laser inscription.
Unfortunately going to some brick and mortar jewellers to buy your diamonds now is like going to a brain surgeon to fix a broken foot. Most show no duty of care other than trying to close the sale on a consigned diamond that they most likely do not own while creaming off a profit with no capital outlay. They are parasites who are desperate to cover their rent and staff wages.
Taking advantage of the client's gullibility while they are making an emotional decision many jewellers are no better than predators.
Only buy diamonds you can see from a qualified diamond grader who specialises in stocking their own diamonds.
Anybody else is a mere charlatan.
I am not winning any friends in the diamond jewellery business but this is not a popularity contest.
I am fed up with the crap and bullshit diamond buyers are told by morons who are completely unqualified.
Never pay up front for a diamond overseas and take into account any added taxes and shipping costs that are not included on the advertised price of a virtual diamond.
Remember even bad diamonds still sparkle and look pretty.
Caveat Emptor = Buyer Beware.
From the album: Timeline Photos
By Diamond Imports
Handmade Halo Diamond Engagement Ring featuring a 2.51ct Excellent Cut Round Brilliant Diamond set with 18 claws providing contrast to the surrounding diamond set halo and band
===This is a ring made from dinosaur bone, meteorite, and gold
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A pair of heavenly Halo Design Diamond Engagement Rings that we handmade for two extremely lucky ladies who are now happily engaged and wearing their beautiful custom designed engagement rings we created for them— at Diamond Imports.
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Looking out towards Brentwood, CA
John has a ranch with some spectacular views. My friend Mike and I got to spend an evening with this elegant individual as he toured us around the old abandoned mines and let us hike up several of the many hills on his property. This shot facing west was from right after a remarkable sunset with lenticular clouds in the sky to the north. Thanks John for a wonderful evening. Keep those dancing shoes dancing now, y'hear?
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Direct link to the book ishttp://creature.themonitor.com/
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Soon it will be 10 am on 11/12/13
In the US, it was last month ..===
Larry Pickering
ROB BORBIDGE FOR QLD GOVERNOR... don’t think so, Rob
There is no doubt Campbell Newman’s new bikie laws will be given short shrift by the High Court. Only a fool without a senate would think to legislate that we be unequal under the law. (Ample laws already exist to deal with the bikie scourge.) And only a fool would consider appointing Rob Borbidge as Qld Governor, but Premier Newman is planning to do both.
Life without a senate has invited corruption and unmoderated excesses from Bjelke-Petersen to Goss, Hinze, Cooper, Ahern, Mackenroth, Ludwig, Bryce, Rudd, Beattie, Bligh and now the relative cleanskin, Campbell Newman, is dipping his toe in the still-warm excrement.
And where does Qld’s 35th premier, Rob “Bubbles” Borbidge, fit into this gallery of rogues? Well, he and his mates had an after-hours predilection for under-age boys, and his mates were none other than Chief Justice Paul “Daphnis” de Jersey and Federal Court Judge, John “Doggy” Dowsett.
A group named BLAZE, an acronym for “Boy Lovers and Zucchini Eaters”, received much scrutiny from the NSW Wood Royal Commission and the NCA. The Commission’s report is available on the net.
A former Speaker claims to have had in his possession a copy of a video, provided by the Parliamentary Service Staff, showing Borbidge entering the Annex building with one of his “friends” and in the company of two young “boys” dressed in high heeled shoes and blonde wigs.
It is believed that a copy of the video, which was in the possession of the Speaker, is now in a secure location.
Borbidge also wrote some very compromising “love letters” to some boys on official Opposition letterheads. The former Speaker declared, “There are three in existence. I have recovered two, but there’s still one getting around out there.” The two letters are also now in a safe location.
In December of 1984, police raided two male brothels, Brett’s Boys at Kelvin Grove and House of Praetorian at Coorparoo.
Copies of credit card receipts were kept in Police Commissioner Terry Lewis’ safe. These documents were seized by Fitzgerald Inquiry investigators. The source for this information was a solicitor representing one of the corrupt cops who was brought before the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
According to this source, Lewis’ safe contained credit card receipts for "Brett’s Boys" brothel. The receipts detailed the services as “laundry” and the credit cards were specifically described as AMEX and were noted as official “parliamentary expenses”.
In the Kimmins Report it was claimed that boys were supplied to "Brett’s Boys" from a Philippine source. But there was another source of young boys who were bound for the paedophile networks.
At the recent Carmody Commission of Inquiry a witness by the name of Fred Feige made mention that a senior officer in the Department of Family Services, Mr Donald A. C. Smith, was apportioning out young boys to the offenders on weekends.
At the upcoming Federal Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse, one witness is expected to expand on this information.
He will claim that he was abused by one particular paedophile who was part of a group. This group was involved in an early 1980’s court case which is known as the “Case of the Three White Volvos”.
Each member of this group drove a white Volvo. The particular paedophile in question was ABC radio announcer Blair Edmonds.
Another member of this group was Justice Underhill (known as “Justice Underpants”) who died earlier this year. It is interesting to note who gave the eulogy at Underhill’s funeral. It was Justice Kirby who also gave the eulogy at former Governor General, Sir Zelman Cowan’s, funeral. Cowan was also a paedophile, according to Police Intelligence records.
ALP sycophant, Philip Adams, gave the eulogies at the funerals of Big Bob Collins who suicided rather than face charges and serial “rough-house” offender, Don Dunstan, who had internally injured a young boy to the extent that the poor kid was airlifted back to a Filipino hospital rather than risk admission to a hospital here.
Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, in January, 1997 received a delegation from two investigators into paedophile claims and, during a four hour meeting, the investigators disclosed in detail the sordid backgrounds of D’Arcy, Borbidge and Ahern. Bjelke, according to reports seemed unmoved.
Family Services official, Donald A. C. Smith (he is known as “The Gatekeeper”) had the final say on which children received weekend passes from orphanages and youth detention centres.
The current Commissions into paedophilia will continue to throw light on the networks within Parliaments, the Judiciary, churches, high-profile corporations and well-known television celebrities.
We are about to discover the awful extent to which innocent children have been at risk.
Other huge names are yet to come but I will leave that to evidence yet to be given and to the Commissioners’ findings.
Sleep well boys... and wake up to yourself Campbell Newman.
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RELIEF FOR GILLARD ACCUSERS
I could hear, smell and touch the relief in Bob Kernohan’s voice over the phone as he left the Magistrates Court in Melbourne yesterday. I wanted to give him a cuddle as he drew a little closer to the end of an agonising personal nightmare.
He had called me to say Senior Magistrate Lauristen had rejected Slater & Gordon and Bruce Wilson’s claimed privilege on what could be critical evidence in the AWU scam.
Decent union men have paid a high price to avenge those who stole from their members’ pay packets and systematically rorted and laundered taxpayer and construction company funds.
[Ill-informed bloggers had circulated on the net last week that Magistrate Lauristen may not allow the application by Vicpol and that he could be an ALP “plant”. There was no reason to believe Lauristen would not hear and judge the application on its merits. He did exactly that. Internet conspiracy theorists should understand the likelihood of injudicious rulings ending with an embarrassing peer review and possible invalidation in an appellant court.]
Journalists, Michael Smith, Glenn Milne and others have paid a high price in attempting to uncover the truth. Ralph Blewitt also suffered brutal defamation from an acid-tongued Gillard as she tried to discredit the evidence of her former associate.
Without Blewitt, Vicpol would have no case. As with all whistleblowers, he had everything to lose and nothing to gain except peace of mind.
Bruce Wilson was a high-life union crook and all union crooks, from Mafia mob boss John Gotti down, had a solicitor as a partner in their criminal activity.
Julia Gillard was Wilson’s willing solicitor, partner and moll... there is no doubt about that. Her explanation that she was “young and naive” is beyond all belief.
Twelve dedicated detectives from Victoria’s Major Fraud Squad have spent 12 months unearthing a mountain of evidence against Bruce Wilson.
Under each rock they turned over they also found a naive Julia Gillard, who they now ominously refer to as “others”.
The detectives must have winced when faced with the Boulder, WA, incident; in my opinion the worst of many Gillard/Wilson capers:
WA newspaper archives show Bruce Wilson travelled to Boulder/Kalgoorlie in 1992 to attempt to allay AWU members' concerns about his wish to transfer the management of large sums of union members’ money to a new AWU account in Northbridge, Perth.
The money resided at the time in a separate account called, "The Goldfields Fatal Accident and Death Fund". This money, donated from union members themselves, was intended to financially assist bereaved families of deceased union members.
Wilson was determined to have management of the account shifted to the AWU's head office in Perth. Wilson was the then WA boss of the AWU. He and Ralph Blewitt were to be sole signatories on the account and union members were justifiably apprehensive.
They were wary of Wilson's alleged fraudulent activities and demanded a meeting. It was set down for 8pm in the Boulder Town Hall.
Wilson knew he would never convince members of the legitimacy of the proposed move himself. So he introduced to the stage a person of high legal authority to assure union members there was no need for concern.
The person he introduced was Julia Gillard.
Members were unaware Gillard was his lover and personal solicitor. She was presented as an important Industrial Lawyer from Victoria and an official representative of the Labor stalwart law firm, Slater & Gordon. Slater & Gordon were also unaware of anyone representing them.
Gillard addressed union members at length explaining why the money should be moved and that there was nothing to worry about. She insisted the members were in the good hands of the ALP’s Slater & Gordon and their best interests would at all times be protected.
Gillard must have done an excellent job because the account containing approximately $1 million was shifted to a private Northbridge, Perth account. The address for all correspondence was nominated as Northbridge Post Office, Box 253.
Three years later, police were asked by incoming AWU State Secretary, Tim Daly, to investigate large amounts that had been withdrawn from "The Goldfields Fatal Accident and Death Fund" part of which was used to buy two holiday units in Kalbarri.
Despite the WA Major Fraud Squad's Detective David McAlpine’s keenness to lay charges, it didn't happen. The Kalbarri holiday units, were subsequently sold.
Again the laundered money vanished.
It was only the tip of a very large iceberg that is only now beginning to thaw.
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PAEDOPHILIA IS A SILENT SINISTER PANDEMIC
Not many things can surprise me. I’ve been around a long while and have done just about everything so, after broaching the subject of paedophilia and having had a thousand wicked stories of child abuse hit my desk, I sat here gobsmacked thinking all this just can’t be true!
So I rang everyone I knew, and some I didn’t know, who worked in the field of broken lives. “Surely this can’t be true?” I asked.
“Can I talk off the record?”, was one response. “You don’t know the half of it”, was another. “Just don’t go there, Larry.” I was actually being told by people who should know that it was indeed true.
So, in disbelief, I put up a poll on Pickering Post asking: “Have you ever been indecently interfered with as a child? YES or NO.” I thought maybe 3 or 4 percent would say yes.
For 24 hours the YES answer has been hovering around a staggering 30 per cent. There is no reason for thousands of people to lie about something that would have adversely affected their lives.
There is something seriously wrong here but the polling seems to confirm what is on my desk and in my inbox.
No sooner do I think, “Well, that information MUST be a load of bullshit”, a mountain of corroborating evidence from credible sources follows it! My nose for bullshit is obviously faulty.
I don’t let my three youngsters near churches or scout halls or that dodgy bloke up the street, so I have done my job. Crumbs, have I? I clearly haven’t!
This canker permeates every level of society, it knows no demographic. The judiciary, parliaments, the aristocracy, the entertainment industry is riddled with it, there is no corner where a child is safe from these extremely clever predators.
What is it in the (mostly male) genetic makeup that craves sexual dominance over an innocent child? Time for some lateral thinking:
Historically, parts of Europe, all of the Middle East and much of the Asian sub continent openly practised this bastardry. It is commonplace among Aboriginal and probably most African tribes.
South American cultures included their children in sacrificial ceremonies.
Sophisticated networks and cells of paedophiles operate freely within the West. There are influential groups here in Australia advocating under-age sex be legalised.
These people are not from disadvantaged or oddball groups... they are names, big names, household names! They are intelligent people and smart enough to avoid prosecution.
They dabble in the occult and use LSD to ensure a child can never be a credible witness.
Royal Commissions may well pinpoint myriad instances of child abuse, but try prosecuting the perpetrators. It’s not that easy when the child has been mentally manipulated and thirty years later the criminal is dead.
How many little lives are being ruined tonight?
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James Calore
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Winter wonderland... Again
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Deric Ly
Maybe this as a pork roll challenge? Any takers?
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Michelle Malkin
Funeral selfies? Obama’s selfie face, FLOTUS’ furious face at #MandelaMemorial [pics] ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/
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Tony Abbott, John Key and Steven Harper catching up for tea before Nelson Mandela's memorial service.
Such a poignant photo.
Three brilliant conservative leaders, three good men
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https://www.facebook.com/events/453152764789984/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
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4 her
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Events
- 220 – Cao Pi forces Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate the Han Dynasty throne. The Cao Wei empire is established. The Three Kingdoms period begins.
- 361 – Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.
- 630 – Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.
- 969 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is assassinated by his wife Theophano and her lover, the later Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
- 1282 – Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, southWales.
- 1602 – A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva.
- 1688 – James II of England abdicated the throne by throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames.
- 1789 – The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.
- 1792 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
- 1815 – The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance.
- 1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.
- 1868 – Brazilians defeat Paraguayans at the Battle of Avay during the Paraguayan War.
- 1905 – A workers' uprising occurs in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) and establishes the Shuliavka Republic.
- 1907 – The New Zealand Parliament Buildings are almost completely destroyed by fire.
- 1917 – British General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot and declares martial law.
- 1920 – Irish War of Independence: In retaliation for an IRA ambush, British forces burn and loot numerous buildings in Cork city. Many civilians also reported being beaten, shot at, robbed and verbally abused by British forces.
- 1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas Primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.
- 1927 – Guangzhou Uprising: Communist militia and worker Red Guards launch an uprising in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.
- 1931 – The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster 1931, establishing legislative equality between the United Kingdom and the self-governing dominions of the British Commonwealth: Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Irish Free State.
- 1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time.
- 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India, becomes effective.
- 1937 – Second Italo–Ethiopian War: Italy leaves the League of Nations.
- 1941 – World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them.
- 1941 - World War II: Poland declares war on Empire of Japan.
- 1946 – The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.
- 1948 – The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, which established and defined the role of the United Nations Conciliation Commission as an organization to facilitate peace in the British Mandate for Palestine.
- 1958 – French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin) respectively, joining the French Community.
- 1960 – French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French president Charles de Gaulle.
- 1962 – Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.
- 1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New York.
- 1968 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featuring The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull (band), The Who, Taj Mahal (musician), Marianne Faithfull, The Dirty Mac, Yoko Ono, Sir Robert Fossett's Circus and the Nurses is filmed at the Intertel (V.T.R. Services) Studio, Wycombe Road, Wembley
- 1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
- 1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as CERCLA or Superfund, is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
- 1981 – El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.
- 1993 – Forty-eight people are killed when a block of the Highland Towers collapses near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- 1994 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.
- 1994 – A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, en route from Manila, Philippines to Tokyo, Japan, killing one. The captain is able to safely land the plane.
- 1997 – The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature.
- 1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Thai Airways Airbus A310-300 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation.
- 2001 – The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.
- 2005 – The Buncefield Oil Depot catches fire in Hemel Hempstead, England, United Kingdom.
- 2005 – Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to beLebanese (and many who are not) in Cronulla, New South Wales, Australia. These are followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
- 2006 – The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran by then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; nations such as Israel and the United States express concern.
- 2006 – Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state ofMichoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War.
- 2007 – Two car bombs explode at the Constitutional court building in Algiers, Algeria and the United Nations office. An estimated 45 people are killed in the bombings.
- 2008 – Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Births
- 1465 – Ashikaga Yoshihisa, Japanese shogun (d. 1489)
- 1475 – Pope Leo X (d. 1521)
- 1566 – Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer and organist (d. 1650)
- 1680 – Emanuele d'Astorga, Italian composer (d. 1736)
- 1709 – Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, French wife of Louis I of Spain (d. 1742)
- 1712 – Francesco Algarotti, Italian philosopher (d. 1764)
- 1725 – George Mason, American politician (d. 1792)
- 1758 – Carl Friedrich Zelter, German composer, conductor, and educator (d. 1832)
- 1761 – Gian Domenico Romagnosi, Italian physicist (d. 1835)
- 1781 – David Brewster, Scottish physicist (d. 1868)
- 1801 – Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German playwright (d. 1836)
- 1803 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (d. 1869)
- 1810 – Alfred de Musset, French poet (d. 1857)
- 1830 – Kamehameha V of Hawaii (d. 1872)
- 1838 – John Labatt, Canadian businessman (d. 1915)
- 1843 – Robert Koch, German physician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1910)
- 1856 – Georgi Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary and theoretician (d. 1918)
- 1858 – Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Russian playwright, director, and producer (d. 1943)
- 1863 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (d. 1941)
- 1867 – Antonio Conte, Italian fencer (d. 1953)
- 1872 – René Bull, Irish illustrator (d. 1942)
- 1873 – Josip Plemelj, Slovenian mathematician (d. 1967)
- 1875 – Yehuda Leib Maimon, Bassarabian-Israeli rabbi and politician (d. 1962)
- 1880 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (d. 1951)
- 1882 – Subramanya Bharathy, Indian poet (d. 1921)
- 1882 – Max Born, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
- 1882 – Fiorello La Guardia, American politician, 99th Mayor of New York City (d. 1947)
- 1883 – Victor McLaglen, English-American actor (d. 1959)
- 1884 – Piet Ooms, Dutch swimmer and water polo player (d. 1961)
- 1885 – Carlo Wieth, Danish actor (d. 1943)
- 1889 – Walter Knott, American farmer, founded Knott's Berry Farm (d. 1981)
- 1890 – Carlos Gardel, French-Argentinian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1935)
- 1890 – Mark Tobey, American painter (d. 1976)
- 1897 – Ronald Skirth, English army officer (d. 1977)
- 1904 – Marge, American cartoonist (d. 1993)
- 1905 – Robert Henriques, English author, broadcaster, and farmer (d. 1967)
- 1905 – Gilbert Roland, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1908 – Elliott Carter, American composer (d. 2012)
- 1908 – Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese director and screenwriter
- 1908 – Hákun Djurhuus, Faroese politician, 4th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1987)
- 1908 – Amon Goeth, German SS officer (d. 1946)
- 1909 – Ronald McKie, Australian author (d. 1991)
- 1909 – John Wyer, English race car manager and engineer (d. 1989)
- 1910 – Noel Rosa, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1937)
- 1911 – Val Guest, English director (d. 2006)
- 1911 – Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
- 1911 – Qian Xuesen, Chinese scientist (d. 2009)
- 1912 – P. Manicavasagam, Ceylon Tamil politician
- 1912 – Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer (d. 2007)
- 1913 – Jean Marais, French actor (d. 1998)
- 1916 – Pérez Prado, Cuban singer, pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1989)
- 1918 – Clinton Adams, American painter (d. 2002)
- 1918 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian soldier and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
- 1919 – Marie Windsor, American actress (d. 2000)
- 1921 – Ilmar Laaban, Estonian poet, translator and publicist (d. 2000)
- 1921 – Liz Smith, English actress
- 1922 – Grigoris Bithikotsis, Greek singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Pauline Jewett, Canadian politician (d. 1992)
- 1922 – Dilip Kumar, Indian actor
- 1922 – Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress (d. 2008)
- 1922 – Grace Paley, American author and poet (d. 2007)
- 1923 – Betsy Blair, American actress (d. 2009)
- 1923 – Lilian Cahn, Hungarian-American businesswoman, co-founded Coach, Inc. (d. 2013)
- 1923 – Nikolai Matvejev, Soviet cyclist (d. 1984)
- 1924 – Doc Blanchard, American football player (d. 2009)
- 1925 – Aaron Feuerstein, American businessman
- 1925 – Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1925 – James Sullivan, American politician (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)
- 1927 – John Buscema, American illustrator (d. 2002)
- 1929 – Axel Anderson, German-Puerto Rican actor (d. 2012)
- 1930 – Chus Lampreave, Spanish actress
- 1930 – Jean-Louis Trintignant, French actor
- 1931 – Ronald Dworkin, American philosopher and scholar (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican actress, singer, and dancer
- 1931 – Pierre Pilote, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1931 – Jerome Rothenberg, American poet, translator, and anthropologist
- 1931 – Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Indian mystic, guru, and educator (d. 1990)
- 1932 – Enrique Bermúdez, Nicaraguan army officer, founder and leader of the Contras (d. 1991)
- 1932 – Anne Heywood, English actress
- 1932 – Aladár Kovácsi, Hungarian modern pentathlete (d. 2010)
- 1932 – Keith Waldrop, American poet
- 1933 – Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., Filipino politician, 23rd President of the Senate of the Philippines
- 1935 – Ron Carey, American actor (d. 2007)
- 1935 – Pranab Mukherjee, Indian politician, 13th President of India
- 1935 – Elmer Vasko, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1998)
- 1936 – Hans van den Broek, French-Dutch politician
- 1936 – Taku Yamasaki, Japanese politician
- 1937 – Jim Harrison, American author
- 1938 – Reg Livermore, Australian actor and singer
- 1938 – Enrico Macias, Algerian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1938 – McCoy Tyner, American pianist and composer
- 1939 – Tom Hayden, American politician and activist
- 1939 – Thomas McGuane, American author
- 1940 – David Gates, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Bread)
- 1941 – Max Baucus, American politician
- 1941 – J. P. Parisé, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1941 – Rogier van Otterloo, Dutch conductor and composer (d. 1988)
- 1941 – J. Frank Wilson, American singer-songwriter (J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers) (d. 1991)
- 1942 – Donna Mills, American actress
- 1943 – John Kerry, American politician, 68th United States Secretary of State
- 1944 – Teri Garr, American actress
- 1944 – Jon Garrison, American tenor
- 1944 – Lynda Day George, American actress
- 1944 – Brenda Lee, American singer
- 1944 – Juan E. Méndez, Argentinian activist
- 1946 – Rhoma Irama, Indonesian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1946 – Diana Palmer, American author
- 1948 – Stamatis Spanoudakis, Greek composer
- 1949 – Noel Campbell, Irish footballer
- 1950 – Nino Frassica, Italian actor
- 1950 – Christina Onassis, American businesswoman (d. 1988)
- 1951 – Ria Stalman, Dutch discus thrower
- 1952 – Peter Geyer, German footballer
- 1953 – Bess Armstrong, American actress
- 1954 – Brad Bryant, American golfer
- 1954 – Santiago Creel, Mexican politician
- 1954 – Jermaine Jackson, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (Jackson 5)
- 1954 – Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson, Icelandic guitarist, engineer, and mathematician
- 1955 – Stu Jackson, American basketball coach
- 1955 – Christian Sackewitz, German footballer
- 1956 – Lani Brockman, American actress and director, founded Studio East
- 1956 – Andrew Lansley, English politician
- 1957 – Peter Bagge, American illustrator and writer
- 1958 – Isabella Hofmann, American actress
- 1958 – Chris Hughton, English-born Irish footballer and manager
- 1958 – Nikki Sixx, American bass player, songwriter, and producer (Mötley Crüe, Sixx:A.M., Brides of Destruction, London, 58, and Sister)
- 1960 – Rachel Portman, English composer
- 1961 – Dave King, Irish-American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Flogging Molly and Fastway)
- 1961 – Macky Sall, Senegalese politician, 4th President of Senegal
- 1961 – Marco Pierre White, English chef
- 1961 – Steve Nicol, Scottish footballer and coach
- 1962 – Ben Browder, American actor
- 1962 – Paul Haslinger, Austrian-American composer (Tangerine Dream)
- 1962 – Nele Karajlić, Serbian singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and actor (Zabranjeno Pušenje)
- 1963 – Mario Been, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1963 – Jon Brion, American singer-songwriter, composer, and producer
- 1963 – Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, German tennis player
- 1963 – John Lammers, Dutch footballer and manager
- 1964 – Michel Courtemanche, Canadian comedian and actor
- 1964 – Justin Currie, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Del Amitri and The Uncle Devil Show)
- 1964 – Alexis Reich, American who falsely confessed to the murder of JonBenét Ramsey
- 1964 – Dave Schools, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (Widespread Panic, Stockholm Syndrome, and J Mascis + The Fog)
- 1964 – Cosy Sheridan, American singer-songwriter
- 1964 – Carolyn Waldo, Canadian swimmer
- 1965 – Jay Bell, American baseball player
- 1965 – Giannis Ragousis, Greek economist and politician
- 1966 – Gary Dourdan, American actor
- 1966 – Göran Kropp, Swedish mountaineer (d. 2002)
- 1966 – Leon Lai, Chinese singer and actor
- 1967 – Mo'Nique, American comedian and actress
- 1967 – DJ Yella, American DJ and producer (N.W.A and World Class Wreckin' Cru)
- 1968 – Fabrizio Ravanelli, Italian footballer
- 1969 – Viswanathan Anand, Indian chess player
- 1969 – Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, Mexican drug trafficker
- 1969 – Stig Inge Bjørnebye, Norwegian footballer
- 1969 – Sean Grande, American sportscaster
- 1969 – Alessandro Melli, Italian footballer
- 1971 – Willie McGinest, American football player
- 1972 – Daniel Alfredsson, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1972 – Sami Al-Jaber, Saudi Arabian footballer
- 1972 – Rusty Joiner, American model and actor
- 1973 – Mos Def, American rapper and actor (Black Star and Soulquarians)
- 1974 – Rey Mysterio, American wrestler
- 1974 – Maarten Lafeber, Dutch golfer
- 1974 – Lisa Ortiz, American actress
- 1974 – Ben Shephard, English journalist and television host
- 1975 – Gerben de Knegt, Dutch cyclist
- 1975 – Tomoka Kurotani, Japanese actress
- 1976 – Shareef Abdur-Rahim, American basketball player
- 1977 – Mark Streit, Swiss ice hockey player
- 1978 – Roy Wood, Jr., American comedian and actor
- 1979 – Valdis Mintals, Estonian pair skater
- 1979 – Rider Strong, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1980 – Arya, Indian actor
- 1980 – Kristjan Kitsing, Estonian basketball player
- 1981 – Nikki Benz, Ukraine-Canadian porn actress
- 1981 – Hamish Blake, Australian comedian, actor, and author
- 1981 – Jeff McComsey, American author and illustrator
- 1981 – Paul Medhurst, Australian footballer
- 1981 – Javier Saviola, Argentine footballer
- 1981 – Zacky Vengeance, American guitarist (Avenged Sevenfold)
- 1982 – Pablo Pérez Companc, Argentine race car driver
- 1984 – Leighton Baines, English footballer
- 1984 – Spyros Vrontaras, Greek footballer
- 1985 – Aiko Kayō, Japanese singer and voice actress
- 1985 – Yekta Kurtuluş, Turkish footballer
- 1985 – Anja Prislan, Slovenian tennis player
- 1986 – Roy Hibbert, American basketball player
- 1987 – Clifton Geathers, American football player
- 1987 – Natalia Gordienko, Moldovan singer and dancer
- 1988 – Tim Southee, New Zealand cricketer
- 1989 – Murugan Thiruchelvam, English chess player
- 1991 – Anna Bergendahl, Swedish singer
- 1992 – Tiffany Alvord, song writer, singer, actress
- 1993 – Tyrone Gilks, Australian motorcycle racer (d. 2013)
- 1993 – William Corkery, American voice actor and actor
- 1996 – Hailee Steinfeld, American actress
Deaths
- 384 – Pope Damasus I (b. 305)
- 861 – Al-Mutawakkil, Arabian caliph (b. 822)
- 969 – Nikephoros II Phokas, Byzantine emperor (b. 912)
- 1121 – Al-Afdal Shahanshah, Israeli political adviser (b. 1066)
- 1241 – Ögedei Khan, Mongolian Great Khan (b. 1186)
- 1282 – Llywelyn the Last, Welsh prince (b. 1223)
- 1282 – Michael VIII Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1225)
- 1532 – Pietro Accolti, Italian cardinal (b. 1455)
- 1582 – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, Spanish general and politician, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (b. 1508)
- 1686 – Louis, Grand Condé, French general (b. 1621)
- 1694 – Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma (b. 1630)
- 1737 – John Strype, English clergyman and historian (b. 1643)
- 1747 – Edmund Curll, English bookseller and publisher (b. 1675)
- 1797 – Richard Brocklesby, English physician (b. 1722)
- 1826 – Maria Leopoldina of Austria (b. 1797)
- 1840 – Emperor Kōkaku of Japan (b. 1771)
- 1872 – Kamehameha V of Hawaii (b. 1830)
- 1880 – Oliver Winchester, American businessman and politician (b. 1810)
- 1892 – William Milligan, Scottish theologian (b. 1821)
- 1906 – Charles Townsend, American fencer (b. 1872)
- 1909 – Innokenty Annensky, Russian poet (b. 1855)
- 1918 – Ivan Cankar, Slovenian author, poet, and playwright (b. 1876)
- 1920 – Olive Schreiner, South African author (b. 1855)
- 1937 – Jaan Anvelt, Estonian communist revolutionary and writer (b. 1884)
- 1938 – Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian historian and educator, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1869)
- 1941 – John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American pilot and poet (b. 1922)
- 1941 – Émile Picard, French mathematician (b. 1856)
- 1945 – Charles Fabry, French physicist (b. 1867)
- 1950 – Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer (b. 1893)
- 1957 – Musidora, French actress and director (b. 1889)
- 1959 – Jim Bottomley, American baseball player (b. 1900)
- 1964 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (The Highway Q.C.'s and The Soul Stirrers) (b. 1931)
- 1964 – Percy Kilbride, American actor (b. 1888)
- 1968 – Richard Sagrits, Estonian painter (b. 1910)
- 1968 – Arthur Hays Sulzberger, American publisher (b. 1891)
- 1971 – Maurice McDonald, American businessman, co-founded McDonald's (b. 1902)
- 1975 – Lee Wiley, American singer (b. 1908)
- 1978 – Vincent du Vigneaud, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- 1978 – Paul O'Dea, American baseball player (b. 1920)
- 1979 – James J. Gibson, American psychologist (b. 1904)
- 1983 – Neil Ritchie, Guyanese-English general (b. 1897)
- 1984 – Oskar Seidlin, German-American author, poet, and scholar (b. 1911)
- 1987 – G. A. Kulkarni, Indian author (b. 1923)
- 1989 – Louise Dahl-Wolfe, American photographer (b. 1895)
- 1991 – Robert Q. Lewis, American actor and game show host (b. 1921)
- 1991 – Artur Lundkvist, Swedish author and critic (b. 1906)
- 1992 – Michael Robbins, English actor (b. 1930)
- 1993 – Elvira Popescu, Romanian-French actress (b. 1894)
- 1994 – Philip Phillips, American archaeologist (b. 1900)
- 1995 – Arthur Mullard, English actor (b. 1910)
- 1996 – Willie Rushton, English cartoonist, author, and publisher, co-founded Private Eye (b. 1937)
- 1997 – Eddie Chapman, English spy (b. 1914)
- 1997 – Simon Jeffes, English classically trained guitarist, composer and arranger (b. 1949), founder of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra
- 1998 – André Lichnerowicz, Polish-French physicist (b. 1915)
- 1998 – Lynn Strait, American singer-songwriter (Snot) (b. 1968)
- 2000 – Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, Pakistani diplomat and author (b. 1915)
- 2000 – David Lewis, American actor (b. 1916)
- 2001 – Mainza Chona, Zambian politician, 3rd Vice President of Zambia (b. 1930)
- 2003 – Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivorian author (b. 1927)
- 2004 – José Luis Cuciuffo, Argentinian footballer (b. 1962)
- 2004 – Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand runner and coach (b. 1917)
- 2004 – M. S. Subbulakshmi, Indian singer (b. 1916)
- 2006 – Elizabeth Bolden, American super-centenarian (b. 1890)
- 2007 – Christie Hennessy, Irish singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1945)
- 2008 – Maddie Blaustein, American voice actress (b. 1960)
- 2008 – Bettie Page, American model (b. 1923)
- 2010 – Dick Hoerner, American football player (b. 1922)
- 2011 – John Patrick Foley, American cardinal (b. 1935)
- 2011 – Susan Gordon, American actress (b. 1949)
- 2012 – Toni Blankenheim, German opera singer (b. 1921)
- 2012 – Antonie Hegerlíková, Czech actress (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Albert O. Hirschman, German-American economist (b. 1915)
- 2012 – William B. Hopkins, American politician (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Pedro Reginaldo Lira, Argentinian bishop (b. 1915)
- 2012 – B. B. Nimbalkar, Indian cricketer (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Dindi Gowa Nyasulu, Malawian politician (b. 1944)
- 2012 – Ravi Shankar, Indian-American sitar player and composer (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Walter Francis Sullivan, American bishop (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Colleen Walker, American golfer (b. 1956)
- 2012 – Mendel Weinbach, Polish-Israeli rabbi (b. 1933)
Holidays and observances
- Christian Feast Day:
- Human Rights and Peace Day (Kiribati)
- Indiana Day (United States)
- International Mountain Day (International)
- National Tango Day (Buenos Aires)
- One of the four Agonalia, this day in honor of Sol Indiges; also the Septimontium festival (Roman Empire)
- Pampanga Day (Pampanga Province, the Philippines)
- Republic Day, the day when Upper Volta became an autonomous republic in the French Community in 1958. (Burkina Faso)
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”Deuteronomy 18:15 NIV
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"So shall we ever be with the Lord."
1 Thessalonians 4:17
1 Thessalonians 4:17
Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are--and how transitory! One moment our eyes see him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, but again a little time and we do not see him, for our beloved withdraws himself from us; like a roe or a young hart he leaps over the mountains of division; he is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.
"If today he deigns to bless us
With a sense of pardoned sin,
He to-morrow may distress us,
Make us feel the plague within."
Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a distance, but see him face to face: when he shall not be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of his glory. We shall not see him for a little season, but
"Millions of years our wondering eyes,
Shall o'er our Saviour's beauties rove;
And myriad ages we'll adore,
The wonders of his love."
In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing forever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one's eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.
Evening
"Whose heart the Lord opened."
Acts 16:14
Acts 16:14
In Lydia's conversion there are many points of interest. It was brought about by providential circumstances. She was a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, but just at the right time for hearing Paul we find her at Philippi; providence, which is the handmaid of grace, led her to the right spot. Again, grace was preparing her soul for the blessing--grace preparing for grace. She did not know the Saviour, but as a Jewess, she knew many truths which were excellent stepping-stones to a knowledge of Jesus. Her conversion took place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she went when prayer was wont to be made, and there prayer was heard. Never neglect the means of grace; God may bless us when we are not in his house, but we have the greater reason to hope that he will when we are in communion with his saints. Observe the words, "Whose heart the Lord opened." She did not open her own heart. Her prayers did not do it; Paul did not do it. The Lord himself must open the heart, to receive the things which make for our peace. He alone can put the key into the hole of the door and open it, and get admittance for himself. He is the heart's master as he is the heart's maker. The first outward evidence of the opened heart was obedience. As soon as Lydia had believed in Jesus, she was baptized. It is a sweet sign of a humble and broken heart, when the child of God is willing to obey a command which is not essential to his salvation, which is not forced upon him by a selfish fear of condemnation, but is a simple act of obedience and of communion with his Master. The next evidence was love, manifesting itself in acts of grateful kindness to the apostles. Love to the saints has ever been a mark of the true convert. Those who do nothing for Christ or his church, give but sorry evidence of an "opened" heart. Lord, evermore give me an opened heart.
===Today's reading: Hosea 1-4, Revelation 1 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Hosea 1-4
1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:
Hosea’s Wife and Children
2 When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel....”
Today's New Testament reading: Revelation 1
Prologue
1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
Greetings and Doxology
4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen....
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CHRIST
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. -Luke 2:11
Some people think that "Christ" is Jesus' last name. Jesus Christ, like Joe Johnson or Audrey Smith. If you have thought that, don't feel bad. It is just evidence that over the centuries our understanding of Jesus as the Christ has become so solid in our thinking that we don't think of "Jesus" without "Christ."
Jesus is his name, Christ his title. Among all the titles he bears, Son of God, Son of Man, Good Shepherd, Alpha and Omega, it all begins in the gospel story with this one incredible announcement: "He is Christ the Lord." "Christos" in Greek, and thus, "Christ" in English; "Messiah" in Hebrew, which means "Anointed One."
But what is the meaning of "Anointed One"?
In the Old Testament, three kinds of people were anointed: kings, priests, and prophets. So when we hear "Christ," we should think of Jesus in each of those three roles. He is a king, ruling in people's lives not just because they are in his realm but also because he is in their hearts. He is a priest, one who stands between God and humanity-one who sacrifices; one who intercedes, the mediator, the bridge. And he is Prophet too. Prophets had brought the words of God to the people, but the Messiah is the Word of God to the people.
In those days, when the heavy hand of Caesar Augustus dominated the Holy Land, people were looking for the Anointed One to come. They were hoping for a large army, not a multitude of the heavenly host. They anticipated a bigger and better David, not the obscure rabbi who always seemed like an outsider when he visited Jerusalem. They probably expected an orator, but did not expect the speeches of this Messiah to leave people speechless.
The very best things God does in our lives usually come as a surprise to us. So wouldn't it be surprising if we, who think we know so much about Jesus, would be startled to see him in a whole new way. We picture him in a nativity set or as the subject of praise in hymns. We picture him in art, in stories. We experience him while reading the Bible, or while listening to a Sunday sermon. But we often fail to picture him as the living, breathing manifestation of God on earth. This, the angel said, was "good news of great joy." What could be better than God existing in the midst of our lives?
Prayer for Today:
Christ, you are the King above all other kings, the high priest who has made the ultimate sacrifice, the prophet who has had the last word. Let me be astonished this Christmas by knowing more fully than ever before, that you really have come and have changed this world, and are here still.
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